system wide install

Ok, I think that the basic litespeed install instructions is for people who might go back to apache or whatever. I think it would be nice if there was a system wide install - scripts in /etc/init.d, /sbin, etc so you dont have to type out the full location to the binaries. PLus in /etc/init.d you can monitor it better with the control panel like directadmin and cpanel does, you could probably even make the init.d script httpd so you dont have to make any changes.

I dont know, just a suggestion I dont have any plans on going back to apache and would be cool if I could just type service lsws restart , lsphp -v , etc.

You should already be able to do "service lsws restart" (last I checked the installer does install an init.d script)

You can compile PHP and set the prefix to "/usr/local" and then have the config file path as "/opt/lsws/php" (or whatever you prefer). "php -v" should then work as you require. "Next you can symlink /usr/local/lib/php.ini to /opt/lsws/php/php.ini simply for convenience if you want.

I believe part of the reasoning behind some of the practices is to separate LiteSpeed from Apache for those who want to proxy to Apache for SSI (or anything else they require which LiteSpeed doesn't support). Although, it is of course better to use PHP over SSI anyhow.